Somerton and Frome Labour Party members who have been supporting farm workers in their campaign to save the Agricultural Wages Board have been given a boost this month as singer Billy Bragg weighs into the dispute calling for Liberal Democrat farming minister David Heath to remove his image from his website.
Billy Bragg wrote “I am very dissapointed to find that you are driving through legislation that will undermine agricultural wages here in the south west. Plans to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board and replace it with the national Minimum Wage will take millions of pounds out of labourer’s pay packets and have a severe knock on effect for the rural economy. At a time when our high streets are suffering from an acute lack of demand, abolishing a board which has ensured that farm labourers take home a reasonable wage will not help address that problem.”
‘An ideological attack on workers ability to earn a fair wage’
The singer continued ” This is an ideological attack on workers ability to earn a fair wage and you should be ashamed to be putting through a policy that will only benefit large land owners such as Prince Charles. I notice that you feature a picture of me on your website. If you are not prepared to reconsider this legislation. I’m afraid I must ask you to remove my image.”
Bragg concluded “I stand in solidarity with those who picketed your surgery in Frome yesterday. Confidence and growth will only return to our economy when working people have enough money in their pockets. Abolishing the AWB will not help nus to achieve that goal.”
The minister, MP for Somerton and Frome, dodged questions from members of the Unite union when they recently protested outside his surgery.
Abolition will mean losses worth £25m a year for farm workers
They are asking Mr Heath why he has decided to abolish the AWB, despite signing an Early Day Motion in 2000 in support of the Board, which sets legal rates of pay and conditions for 150,000 agricultural workers. Abolition of the AWB will mean losses worth at least £25 million a year for farm workers.
The south west has 26,000 agricultural workers, with 1,000 working in Mr Heath’s constituency.
Farm worker Steve Leniec, who chairs Unite’s rural and agricultural committee, said “Mr Heath should also come clean over coalition government plans to water down protection for gangworkers under the guise of ‘simplifying’ the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.”
‘AWB is about far more than a minimum wage’
Mr Leniec said: “David Heath has recently called the AWB ‘a costly relic of a previous age’. That’s not what he was calling it in 2000. He has since claimed he made this commitment to the Early Day Motion before there was a national minimum wage. But the national minimum wage was in force months beforehand. And if he knew anything about the industry and its workers, he would be honest enough to admit that the AWB is about far more than a minimum wage.”
“A clear majority of those responding to the government’s consultation in the autumn on the abolition of the AWB, including farmers and farm workers, disagree with him and the government. He’s not listening to the industry and he’s not listening to his constituents. .”
The campaign to save the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) continues with another lobby of David Heath MP’s constituency surgery at 10am – 11.30am Saturday 6th April. The surgery will be held in The Library, Justice Lane, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BE. Leaflets, placards and a banner will beavailable. This is an excellent location next to the market and plenty of people should around.
You will remember that David Heath was opposed to the abolition of the AWB when he was a backbench Lib Dem MP and then when in government as Farm Minister, he decided that farmworker’s pay and conditions must be dramatically cut and to do that he is driving through the abolition of the AWB; doing the Tory’s job for them.
The Commons debate on the issue is on Tues 16 April and so it is imperative that we keep up the pressure and publicity.
Please circulate this information and encourage as many as possible to attend.
We must never forget the 7 Agricultural workers transported because they wanted a fairer wage!
What an absolute Disgrace these Condems are.I only hope that they are digging their own graves! And that they will live to regret their actions
The abolition of the AWB proves yet again that the coalition government, and in particular their Liberal Demoprat (sic) cannot be trusted. This is a direct kick in the teeth for agricultural workers who often work long hours in all winds and weathers to put food on our tables and manage the countryside.
Richard Hampson
County Council candidate for Bridgwater West,